Trio pleads guilty in 2011 Oceanside shooting

VISTA  Three Oceanside gang members who senselessly gunned down a teenage couple while they sat on a couch in a park in 2011 pleaded guilty Friday in Vista Superior Court to various charges.

AL’C Bejaran, 21, described as the trigger man, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder with special circumstance allegations. He will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole at a hearing on Dec. 11 under the terms of a plea bargain.

The District Attorney’s Office had earlier announced it would seek the death penalty against Bejaran, but changed direction.

Justin Gibson, 21, and Kenneth Hamilton, 36, who were both facing murder charges, pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and will each be sentenced to 20 years in prison at a hearing set for Jan. 14. The men must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before being eligible for parole, said Vista Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz.

Gibson and Hamilton were with Bejaran at the time of the shooting.

Sitting in the back of the courtroom, many in tears, were brothers, sisters, parents and other family members of the victims: 14-year-old Sandra Salgado and 16-year-old Fernando Solano who were boyfriend and girlfriend. The family members chose not to comment after the hearing.

The couple had gone to Libby Lake Park the night of May 3, 2011, essentially just to be together, a prosecutor said.

“These three defendants were part of a gang and the park where this occurred was somewhat claimed by a rival gang,” Deputy District Attorney Cal Logan said after the hearing. “We believe that when Bejaran discovered there were other people in the park he presumed they were rival gang members and shot them as a result.”

Sandra and Fernando were not gang members and were unarmed, Logan said.

“The two victims were two kids who were sitting in a park, enjoying each other’s company, and unfortunately that was there last day together.”

Logan said the decision to enter into the plea bargains was made after attorneys for the men approached the District Attorney’s office.

“After consultation with the victims’ families, who were very accepting of this conclusion, we made the decision,” Logan said. “They believed in a final resolution and being able to put this terrible incident behind them and try and move on.”

The judge questioned each defendant vigorously to make sure they understood what they were doing.

“This means you will never, ever be released from prison, do you understand that?” Katz asked Bejaran, who replied that he did.

Logan said the deals were contingent on all three men agreeing to plead guilty Friday. Negotiations continued right up until the hearing began.